On the flight home to Phoenix I killed some time composing a list* to add to my collection. I find lists more useful and reliable than my recall. They help me keep things organized. Truth is, I am rather found of making lists for the shear pleasure they bring me.
Some of my lists are prosaic: they remind me what to buy next time I go to the grocery store. When I can’t remember something, I consult the appropriate list of guidance. The latest trip to Stratford and Shaw Festivals were more organized thanks to lists of the restaurants we’ve visited and the plays we have seen.
Other lists are more like contests: can I list my ten favorite plays, or my top fifty reads?
Can I recall all the shirts I have made, and to whom I gave them?
Someone is sometimes bewildered by my mania for list making . He seldom needs them. He organizes things in his head and (more curious) remembers them. I have no such skill. Lists are my peripheral brain, my companion cingulate gyrus, without which I would be lost. Lists serve as a warning. They seem to say “You already got one, so don’t buy another!” This prevents the oh so common mistake of thinking I need this, that, or another, only to discover (when I return home) one or more of said item is already there.
I probably take list making to an extreme. Who cares really, knowing how many Opera CDs we own**, or which short stories I find most remarkable?*** Answer: Nobody, but I.
Some day I should make a list of all the lists I have.
*It is “Whiskies I sampled” : Forty Creek, Canadian Club, Oban, Glenkinchie, Highland Park, Glenmorangie, and Jura. Phew !
**34, of which 3 are different recordings of “Dialogues of the Carmelites”
*** Available upon request.
Spo-Reflections 
12 comments
August 19, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Ron
I too am a List Maker Dr. Spo. My lists perhaps are not as exotic or esoteric as yours but just as self pleasuring to me all the same. In fact I think I feel a “List” coming on now. 🙂
August 19, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Jay
My mother would start making a list about next year’s vacation as we left each year. Lists were her “thing” Me, I generally forget something.
August 19, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Mitchell Block
My brother also loves to create lists for everything. I only like To-Do lists; I love scratching things off!
August 19, 2012 at 1:14 PM
jason
Is there a list of your lists somewhere? I suspect there is.
🙂
August 19, 2012 at 3:41 PM
Cameron
I’ve found that my friends with the shortest attention spans tend to make lists. Perhaps the lists (and the activity of making them) helps these people focus & remember better.
August 19, 2012 at 9:30 PM
Greg
I’m always composing lists — and sometimes, actually write them down. They make for interesting blog posts.
August 20, 2012 at 6:32 AM
Raybob
The associate director of IS at Duke was a beautiful list-maker. She made a list each day, then crossed things off her to-do list, making a beautiful, clean list each morning.
I make lists, then forget where I put them. I make lists on multiple pads of paper! Hers were all on the same, single yellow legal pad. She only had one. My mistake is having a bunch of everything.
I’m most impressed that you *keep* your lists; I make them, then lose them, losing steam in the process.
I do have a permanent list I keep of all the Jeffreys I have known. It’s up to about 23 now.
August 20, 2012 at 8:14 AM
Shawn
Nope
List making not one of my strong points….
August 20, 2012 at 9:06 AM
jefferyrn
I recall a book first published back in the 70s called “The book of Lists”. You are not alone. Perhaps you could publish a variation of this called “Spo’s Lists”. Enquiring minds essential almanac!
August 20, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Old Lurker
I hereby request a list of short stories that Dr. Spo finds most
remarkable, preferably expressed as a blog entry.
August 20, 2012 at 1:41 PM
Urspo
Righto !
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August 21, 2012 at 9:50 PM
Erik Rubright
I used to be someone who didn’t need lists. At least written ones. I could remember all that in my head. And then it changed. Almost overnight. I can tell you the exact moment I became a list maker. I had to take a FranklinCovey planner class. And from that point on, my brain no longer would hold onto lists.